When Arkansas and Oklahoma State tip off on Saturday afternoon, the Pokes will be carrying the weight of much more than just the Big 12 Conference.

Friday, Jan. 27th, is the 16th anniversary of the plane crash that killed 10 members of OSU's basketball team and staff on the way back from Colorado.

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There will be a moment of silence at 2:45 p.m. before the 3 p.m. tip-off in Gallagher-Iba Arena between the Razorbacks and Pokes. At halftime, OSU Counseling Services will receiver the proceeds of the annual Remember the Ten Run from 2016.

While it will certainly be an emotional day off the court, there's plenty at stake on it as well.

The Hogs, coming off what head coach Mike Anderson called a "gut-wrenching" win over Vanderbilt, are looking for their fifth straight win.

"Our guys are looking forward to an opportunity to play," said Anderson. "It's a tremendous environment so get ready. Another test for our team."

Senior guard Dusty Hannahs, who played in Stillwater twice during his two seasons with Texas Tech, has some familiarity with OSU senior guard Phil Forte III, who's averaging more than 13 points a game.

"He's aggressive, his freshman year and sophomore year he hit a crazy amount of threes," said Hannahs. "He's a good dude too, I've known him, played him in the circuit when I was a really young age and to see how far he's come that's neat. But there's no friendship in this game, we've got to be foes again but I admire what he's done."

Hannahs too, deserves some admiration for the aggression he showed down the stretch against the Commodores. Scoring 14 of the Razorbacks last 19 points to complete the comeback, the Little Rock native says his team is getting better at handling adversity. Now they're ready to perform from tip-off to the final buzzer as if their backs are against the wall.

"We know adversity's going to come, we talked about thateven before the Vandy game," said Hannahs. "We're going to play hard,we're going to play with poise- adversity is going to come, how are we going tohandle it? And that case was special because it was the biggest amount ofadversity we could've faced."

Down 10 points with 5:39 left on the clock, former FayettevilleBulldog and Dore sophomore Peyton Willis missed both free throws. That, saysHannahs is what started the comeback.

"From then on I remember we were just on a run, and noteven figuratively speaking- we were running hard. I thought we played with asense of urgency and I think that sense of urgency can carry over to thebeginning of games now to know how we need to play the whole game not just whenour back's against the wall."